Left 4 Dead 2 Dead Air DLC Getting Early Release

Good news for PC Left 4 Dead 2 players eagerly awaiting the official release of the next batch of DLC for the zombie shooting game: Valve has announced that one piece of the upcoming Cold Stream downloadable content will be released early.

Last week, Valve revealed that if at least 20,000 people testing the Cold Stream campaign could earn the achievement for completing it this weekend, Valve would release Dead Air early. Joystiq reports that the Eager Steam community quickly overcame that challenge, with a grand total of 60,744 "Stream Crosser" achievements unlocked. As such, the Dead Air part of the Cold Stream update will be released early -- Valve is saying by July 22 at the latest.

Dead Air is actually a campaign from the original Left 4 Dead that is being updated for compatibility with Left 4 Dead 2. The full, final Cold Stream DLC will include Dead Air, two other L4D1 campaigns, and a user-created campaign that has been community-tested.